BY MILA MIMICA


Allegations of secrecy and cover ups are again plaguing Mitt Romney’s campaign for the GOP nomination following a new discovery that he spent state money to hide records in 2007. Boston’s WBZ has the story.

“Reuters is reporting Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state money to replace computers in his office just to keep his records secret. The move is legal but is unusual.”

The accusations come just two weeks after the Boston Globe’s reports that Romney’s staff deleted emails and purchased state-issued hard drives toward the end of his four-year tenure as Governor of Massachusetts in 2007. The Globe spoke to a staffer who had worked for previous Massachusetts governors.

“It certainly wasn’t [standard operating procedure] in any way. That’s almost unthinkable. It seems inherently a bad idea. You almost think you’d want to have a record of everything going on for the public.”

In an interview with the Nashua Telegraph, Romney took responsibility and legitimized his team’s actions.     

“Well, I think in government we should follow the law. And there has never been an administration that has provided to the opposition research team, or to the public, electronic communications. So ours would have been the first administration to have done so.”

But according to Inquisitr, digital records requests are not included in Massachusetts state law.

“Romney has argued that a 1997 [Massachusetts] court ruling states that governor records in the state are not subject to disclosure, a contention that is being fought against by various public records rights activists.”

The Atlantic Wire is reporting several news organizations are requesting these records, but says Romney’s attempt at hiding or erasing the records could actually benefit him in the end.  

“Any legal complications regarding the release of those records — or the fact that many of them no longer exist — could delay any formal accounting of Romney's tenure until it's too late to make any difference. Sounds like that's just the way he would like it.”